History

This "Jalopy" is believed to be the oldest and 1 of 3 survivors out of hundreds of CJA (California Jalopy Association), cars racing throughout southern California from 1938 - 1966. Jalopy races were televised locally from about 1950 through 1964 and were an important source of entertainment in Southern California. During this period, someone with an extremely small budget, but with lots of ambition, could find enough parts at the local junkyards to build a fairly competitive race car.

The CJA was the association where many of the famous midget, sprint car, and Indianapolis drivers first honed their skills. These drivers include Indy winner Parnelli Jones, 2 time CRA (California Racing Association) Sprint Car champion Billy Wilkerson, 2 time CRA Sprint Car champion Bob Hogle, 5 time CRA Sprint Car champion Jimmy Oskie, and many other standout drivers.

Most of the history of this particular Jalopy has been lost. We do know it was built and raced successfully by Junior Brechbuhler. He eventually sold it to Chuck Guevara, a long time CJA standout who raced it through the 1963 racing season.

During the 1964 racing season, many rules were changed and the cars started to become modified's or super modified's over the following year or two. The era of build it yourself with junkyard parts was gone and the cars soon became "factory built" such as the Edmunds Autoresearch cars here on display. This was followed by full roll cages on Sprint Cars and the beautiful little Super Modifieds soon became a thing of the past as well.